As previously described, I was supposed to return from St. Lucia on Monday morning, chill and pack slowly, then depart for Thailand on Thursday night. Hurricane Tomas screwed that, so I didn't get back until Thursday morning, leaving me with 12 hours in the UK, half spent getting in and out of airports - tight enough to be considered heroic (foolhardy). I tried for an extra 24 hours, but only got half that - leaving me with 25 hours in the UK.
Now, I'm quite a seasoned traveller and can pack for a week working away in about 10 minutes. However, this trip was by backpack, in Tropical climes and had visa complexities that needed to be exactly right.
In the end I kept my taxi to Heathrow waiting nearly 20 minutes, as I finished preparations. That wasn't as bad as it sounds, because the driver was a friend and colleague of my friend and housemate Phil, and she spent the time sitting on my sofa, playing with his baby daughter.
In that past-last-minute gap I booked this hotel - a lot more expensive than I'd have liked, but necessary.
It was odd to be back on a plane waiting to take off again so soon, but obviously relieving to have achieved the turnaround.
The Thai International Airways flight (11h20) was a 747-400, but had a state-of-the-ark entertainment system - one movie at a time projected onto a central screen. The films were good and modern, but unfortunately I'd seen them all on the BA 777 touch-screen, personal choice, pausable system to and from St. Lucia. Still, Thai flights are much cheaper than anyone else's and that has to come from somewhere - no complaints about legroom, though.
The flight landed in Bangkok before 6am and I proceeded to visa-on-arrival, only to be told Brits don't need one. Consequently, I went through the one of the 3 immigration zones furthest from the plane and was relieved that all 3 open into the same huge baggage hall.
Into town on the City Train, stopping a few times and hence cheaper than the express (15 Baht or 60p).
I disembarked at Makkasan station and found a taxi. The driver wanted to ring the hotel and I couldn't understand why, so told him not to bother. Being spoilt in London and Reading, it didn't occur to me that he might have no idea where it was, despite showing him the full address (in English / Latin alphabet) on my iPhone.
I had a map and pointed at where we were and where I thought the hotel was, and he set off the opposite way up the relevant road. At least six stopping-to-ask-someones later he turned around and went to where I pointed in the first place.
I couldn't grumble - he might have gone straight there if I'd let him ring, so it was my fault. The overgrown fare was still all of £4!!
One reason I needed to book a hotel was that I reached it before 9am but couldn't check in before 2pm. Hence I needed somewhere to dump my bags, etc. The other reason was stress reduction - the hotel as a known factor and one less to worry about.
So there I was at a loose end between 0900 and 1400 and bag-free, so I went off exploring.
[At this point in writing, the lack of sleep, battered body clock (Carib->Thai = +12hrs aaargh!) and Margheritas have got the better of me so I'll "retire hurt" and resume later.]
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